This newspaper has been a strong supporter of the nursing profession in its demands for a fair deal covering pay, working conditions and status, within an evolving medical system. Seismic shifts have taken place in recent years involving the nature of nursing; the level of educational attainment and the professional responsibilities shouldered in their response to high-tech medicine. Yet, because they lacked the militancy of other public service groups, they remained badly treated by successive governments; undervalued within the medical service generally and poorly paid. Nurses are viewed by the public as the human face of hospital care. And because of the discrimination practised against them in the past, they attract huge public sympathy.
This Government and its predecessor sought to address those genuine grievances. But progress has been painfully slow and has dragged on for four years. A 17 per cent pay increase was granted in 1997 after the Irish Congress of Trade Unions agreed to ringfence the award and treat it as a special claim. They were paid a further £85 million on foot of a report by a commission on nursing. And, following deliberations by the Labour Court on pay-related issues identified by that commission, average pay increases of 23 per cent were proposed last August. The arbitration findings were accepted by the Government and hospital authorities but rejected by the four nurses unions. Following that rejection, a vote for strike action was carried overwhelmingly. A strike is now scheduled to start next Tuesday and patients are already being sent home from hospital.
The Government and the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, are in an unenviable position. If they concede additional pay demands from nurses, they will trigger an avalanche of related, catch-up pay demands from teachers, garda, prison officers and other public service unions. The government pay bill could spiral out of control. And great damage might be done to the economy and to the prospect for improved living standards for all our citizens. It would also effectively write "finis" to the successful experiment in social partnership agreements that transformed the economy and added an estimated half-a-million persons to the workforce in 12 years.
The nurses have real grievances. Their medical expertise, long working hours and academic qualifications should attract greater official recognition both in terms of pay and conditions. But it cannot be done under the terms of Partnership 2000. The unpalatable reality is that nurses, and their unions, will be in breach of Partnership 2000 and of agreed industrial procedures if this strike goes ahead. The ill-judged comments of some ministers should not disguise that fact.
Nurses and their unions appear to lack a clear strategy. Rejecting a 23 per cent pay deal in favour of strike action is not something that will retain public sympathy for long if the community suffers from the withdrawal of health services. And they must have noticed that while the opposition parties in the Dail are highly vocal in blaming the Government for its handling of the dispute, they are not advocating a breach of Partnership 2000. In objective terms, a strike is not in their long-term interests.
There is another way. Both the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, have suggested the nurses should pursue their grievances under a proposed public service pay determination system for a new partnership agreement, which will concentrate on productivity rather than traditional relativities. And they offered due process in implementing the remaining elements of the nursing commission report. These channels will almost certainly be used to end the threatened strike. But, as they stand, they are probably too ephemeral to prevent one happening. The nursing alliance should challenge the Government and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to flesh out these proposals and offer firm commitments that the relativities which thwarted their progress in the past will not apply under a new wage agreement. They should seek an undertaking that their academic qualifications will be rewarded. Finally, given that powerful elements within the trade union movement are opposed to the ending of relativities within the public service, nurses should understand they may have to fight on two fronts to secure their objectives. Social and financial justice requires that those objectives be met.